BA (Hons) Politics, Philosophy & Economics

What you'll study

In the first year, you will take four modules: an introduction to economics, an introduction to philosophy, a module on contemporary issues in political economy (such as the financial crisis) and one of the existing politics first year modules.

The second year becomes more interdisciplinary and critical. It includes a module in political and economic anthropology, exploring the nature of money, property and markets. The philosophy module brings in elements of continental philosophy and critical theory.

In the third year, you will have the chance to choose from a large variety of modules, from across different departments, and also have the option to do a dissertation. This will allow you to draw on the skills you have acquired over the first two years, to take your own approach to the questions of politics, philosophy and economics. By the third year, we expect you to see various connections between the separate fields of politics philosophy and economics, and be able to combine them in critical and imaginative ways.

Year 1 (credit level 4)

Students take a total of 90 credits comprised of these compulsory modules:

Year 1 modules Module title Credits. Issues in Cultural and Political Economy Issues in Cultural and Political Economy 30 credits

This course seeks to understand issues in Political and Cultural Economy through a direct engagement with contemporary problems and ideas that shape the world we live in.

This is a compulsory course in the PPE degree programme that seeks to expose and investigate the links between Politics, Philosophy and Economics using real world case studies. Issues in Cultural and Political Economy (ICPE) compliments the three core courses offered on the PPE degree, which offer a thematic reading of politics, economics and philosophy; Issues is an interdisciplinary course offering in-depth case study analysis of four key issues in political and cultural economy: elites, finance, the environment and neoliberalism.

These key issues are then examined from different perspectives: the market, the state, culture and society as well as from local and global perspectives.

This approach highlights Goldsmiths’ recognised reputation for interdisciplinary approaches to research and practice as well as its commitment to encouraging unorthodox scholarly enquiry. Using a case-study based approach encourages students to develop a range of practical skills and confidence in analysis, data collection, evaluation, argument and debate, critical reading and writing.

30 credits. Problems of Ethics Problems of Ethics 15 credits

This course is concerned with the ways in which Western philosophy, ever since its beginnings in ancient Greece, has tried to think through the relationship between ethics and society, between ideas of the good and ways of organising collective life.

It will introduce students to the ways in which philosophers, ancient and modern, have tried to think of the tension between passions, interests and virtues, as well as how they have framed the conflicts between individuals and collectives. We will also reflect on how attention to race, gender and social transformation impacts on our understanding of classical ethical problems.

15 credits. Introduction to Political Philosophy Introduction to Political Philosophy 15 credits

This course is designed to introduce students to some of the fundamental concepts, debates and theories in political philosophy. The course will aim to introduce students to:

• key political concepts such as legitimacy, democracy, liberty, equality and justice
• major political traditions such as social contract, utilitarianism, liberalism and socialism
• the ideas of a range of major political thinkers such as Hobbes, Locke, Kant, Bentham, J.S. Mill, Rousseau, Marx, Rawls and Nozick
15 credits. Foundations of Economics Foundations of Economics 30 credits

This module introduces students to microeconomics, macroeconomics and the context of economic analysis. Students will get a good grounding in microeconomic theory and will understand the principles used in mainstream rational choice and perfect competition theory.

The course will cover preference theory, demand and supply, income and substitution effects, cost and revenue curves, perfect competition and partial equilibrium theory. The focus here is the internal consistency of neoclassical microeconomics as exemplified in rational choice theory and competitive markets, and its use of logic. Arguments showing the context and limited nature of neoclassical economic tools in explaining the economic and social reality will be discussed throughout these weeks.

Then students will be taught topics of macroeconomics. In this section, the focus will be on the following specific concepts: national accounting, inflation, unemployment and business cycles. The analysis of these concepts will be through the use of contemporary schools of economic thought (New Classical, New Keynesian, Post Keynesian, and Monetarist) and their analytical frameworks. By viewing these concepts through these different frameworks, the student is introduced into open-ended discussions on these topics as different answers are equally valid as long as students can clearly identify the theoretical frameworks that he/she is using.

Finally, students then will learn about the social, political and business context of economic theory through the discussion of case studies and real-world examples.

30 credits.

They then choose one of these Politics and International Relations modules to make up the remainder of their 30 credits:

Module title Credits. UK and European Comparative Governance and Politics UK and European Comparative Governance and Politics 30 credits

This unit introduces students to the comparative approach to politics and government, in addition to building a understanding of the politics and governance of four key members of the European Union: the UK, Germany, Italy and France.

The first half of the unit is focused on the UK and also considers the EU as an institution, while the second half concentrates on the other three countries at the unit’s core.

Students will not only build an essential foundation for studying the politics of the UK and EU, but will also develop their skills in comparative methods.

30 credits. World Politics World Politics 30 credits

This unit will introduce students to the study of world politics, emphasising that there are different and competing perspectives on how to approach the subject.

In the first term, we focus on the three dominant paradigms (realism, pluralism and structuralism) that defined the discipline of International Relations throughout the 20th Century. We situate those paradigms in the historical context in which they were developed and critically examine both their contribution to our understanding of world politics and their shortcomings.

In the second term, the unit identifies some of the contours of the post-Cold War inter-national environment. In particular, it explores claims that contemporary world politics are defined by processes of globalisation.

30 credits. The Politics of Other Cultures The Politics of Other Cultures 30 credits

This module aims to provide students with an understanding of the importance of colonialism and imperialism, and resistance to these, in the shaping of our world. It treats culture, including forms of art, as central to politics.

It begins by considering non-Western forms of politics, civilization and culture prior to colonial domination. The rest of the module explores the forms of political, cultural, aesthetic and ideological interaction, and change, engendered in the module of the colonial encounter. A related aim of the module is to introduce students to a range of types of reading material and sources, beyond the conventional first year text book.

30 credits. Year 2 (credit level 5)

Students take the following compulsory modules:

Year 2 compulsory modules Module title Credits. Politics, Economics and Social Change Politics, Economics and Social Change 30 credits

Politics, Economics and Social Change introduces you to the core concepts and theories relating to economic and political organisations and the problem of accounting for change, both empirically and theoretically.

To familiarise you with a number of empirical contexts in order that you may be able to conceptualise the complex socio-economic processes that are affecting the peripheral areas that have long been the concern of anthropologists.

To explore a number of contemporary problems relating to such issues as the apparent contradiction between local or national autonomy and globalisation that do not fit easily into definitions of the "economic" or "political".

30 credits. Knowledge and Subjectivity Knowledge and Subjectivity 15 credits

This module introduces students to key concepts and texts in modern European philosophy, taking the question of subjectivity as its guiding thread.

The first half of the module explores, in their historical sequence, some of the most influential understandings of the subject, and of the possibilities and limitations of knowledge, produced by modern philosophy. Beginning with a critical exploration of the way in which René Descartes' 'Cogito ergo sum' (I think therefore I am) has been seen as the inauguration of modern philosophy, we will investigate different ways of posing the problem of the knowing subject: the empiricism of John Locke and David Hume, the critical philosophy of Immanuel Kant, the dialectical phenomenology of spirit of G.W.F. Hegel and the contradiction between faith and knowledge in the thought of Søren Kierkegaard.

Through a close consideration of these philosophers, students will be introduced to key notions in philosophy: epistemology, ontology, phenomenology, critique, and the distinction between the empirical and the transcendental.

15 credits. Aesthetics Aesthetics 15 credits

This module introduces students to key concepts and texts around the nature of aesthetics and the philosophy of art. The first half of the module will cover topics such as: the nature of art and the aesthetic; the nature of aesthetic experience and representation; expression and its logical underpinnings; the nature of sensation and the aesthetic object; and the relationship between art, judgment, and morality.

Each topic will be treated in relation to classical texts as well as the work of leading contemporary theorists working in the field. The second half of the module will focus on the sustained reading of one major text in the philosophy of art and aesthetics, contextualising it within the historical moment in which its key premises and arguments emerged, isolating its major claims and interlocutors, and evaluating its contributions to fundamental debates on art, aesthetic experience, and the claims and limits to the autonomy that the aesthetic implies.

15 credits.

Students must also select 30 credits from the following economics options:

Module title Credits. Political Economy Political Economy 30 credits

This module introduces students to the various attempts to clarify and understand the links between economic and political processes which come under the banner of ‘political economy’. As a whole, the module is intended to draw out the links between the broad “school”-level approaches (such as Marxism, economic sociology, methodological individualism and institutional economics) and contemporary issues and analyses (concerning questions of resource scarcity, predation, coordination failures and trust).

To this end, the module is split into two broad parts. The first guides students through the main thematic approaches to political economy in order to examine the principle concepts theorists have used to understand and explain economic processes. The second part seeks to apply these concepts to contemporary economic issues and questions.

It seeks to both clarify and examine the various understandings of the market and the state which have shaped the direction of economic research, so that students can finish the module with a clear understanding of the various ideas, concerns and beliefs which motivate real-world political economic arguments.

*students must have taken Economics modules at level 4

30 credits. Mathematics for Economics and Business Mathematics for Economics and Business 30 credits

This module introduces the mathematical methods used in the analysis of modern economics. This module does not require an A Level in Mathematics (or equivalent) and is suitable for students both with and without an A Level in Mathematics as it teaches the use of mathematics in relation to economic theory and application.

Students will revise and apply basic concepts of mathematics to relevant economic problems. Furthermore, they will learn partial derivatives and second partial derivatives of functions of two or more independent variables, constrained and unconstrained optimisation. These mathematical tools will be taught with special emphasis on how they are used in economic applications and real life examples.

30 credits. International Political Economy 1 International Political Economy 1 15 credits

This module introduces students to the sub-discipline of international or global political economy (IPE). Its focus will be on the connections and interactions between domestic economic processes and policies and international economic developments.

Students will be introduced to the major theoretical traditions in IPE and the overarching debates concerning international collaboration, coordination and competition, before exploring the various issues and problems faced by international actors, such as those concerning trade, finance and the environment.

The module will draw attention to the potential (and contested) links between international developments/issues and domestic political and economic issues throughout, with the intention of encouraging students to develop a perspective on both the constraints the “international” poses upon domestic actors and the duties domestic actors have to the former.

15 credits. Topics in International Economics Topics in International Economics 15 credits

This module introduces students to key topics in international economics. It is divided into two parts.

In Part I, we will study trade theory and policy to understand the patterns, determinants, and consequences of international trade. Topics covered in this part include the basics and critique of classical and neoclassical trade theory, economies of scale, international factor mobility, and the effect of trade on wages and income distribution.

Part II of the module will provide students with a set of tools to understand and systematically analyze the monetary side of the international economy. Key topics covered include the balance of payments, the determination of exchange rates, interest rates and prices in open economies, different exchange rate regimes (fixed versus floating), interdependence of economies, and the international financial markets.

Further, we will employ this theory to better understand recent issues such as the persistence of the US current account deficit; the creation of the Euro and the future of the US Dollar as a reserve currency; the nature and consequences of financial crises.

Students are expected to come out of this module with a deeper understanding of international trade and monetary theory and related economic policy issues.

15 credits.

Students can then select modules to the value of 30 credits from the following Politics and International Relations options:

Module title Credits. Making Modern Japan Making Modern Japan 15 credits

This module addresses a number of themes that relate to questions of nationalism, imperialism, identity and gender, focusing on Japan’s emergence as a modern nation state, its imperial project and its catastrophic defeat, culminating in the dropping of the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and its occupation by Allied forces. The historical perspective, which the module seeks to offer, is central to an understanding of Japan’s troubled relationship with its Asian neighbours, and of its claims of uniqueness, which have their legacy in its position as both coloniser and colonised. The module approaches questions of politics through a very expansive definition of the term, treating cinema, animation, manga, and other popular cultural forms as important sites for the articulation of political anxieties and concerns, which are not necessarily reflected in more conventional forms of political activity, such as political debates, deliberations of the Diet and so on.

15 credits. Chinese Politics: The Revolutionary Era Chinese Politics: The Revolutionary Era 15 credits

This is a broad, historically-based survey module of Chinese politics that takes the student from the early days of communist partisanship through to the end of the Cultural Revolution (from 1921 to 1976 or thereabouts). This module is designed to offer both an overview of and background to, contemporary Mainland Chinese political culture and an insight into a form of politics that is very different from that of liberal democracy.

This module is a lot more historically oriented than many of the other survey modules offered in the Department, but to understand this country requires an understanding of this history which is still lived very much as an on-going set of norms and values. It is difficult to understand China today without an understanding of this history and what this module offers is a survey account of